WHAT DOES QURAN SAYS ABOUT BIBLE?

Bible is the Book which has faced lots of criticisms and oppressions. One of the major criticisms against Bible is that it has corrupted, and present Bible is not the actual word of God! This argument is often raised by the Muslims. Let us check is this argument true!

If we look the Islam history, the Qur’an says Muslims to respect the Gospel given to Jesus Christ and read by Christians. The Qur'an presupposes that the Gospel possessed by Christians is in fact identical with the original one proclaimed by Jesus.2 In the first four centuries after Muhammad (600 - 1000 AD) no Muslim theologian seriously contended that the Gospel texts were not authentic. They might accuse Christians of giving a wrong interpretation to the words; they would not dispute the words themselves. As studies of Muslim apologetics have shown it was only with Ibn-Khazem who died at Cordoba in 1064, that the charge of falsification was born.
In his defence of Islam against Christians, Ibn-Khazem came up against the contradictions between the Qur'an and the Gospels. One obvious example was the Qur'anic text `They slew him not and they crucified him not' (Sura 4:156). `Since the Qur'an must be true,' Ibn- Khazem argued, `it must be the conflicting Gospel texts that are false. But Muhammad tells us to respect the Gospel. Therefore, the present text must have been falsified by the Christians.' His argument was not based on historical facts, but purely on his own reasoning and on his wish to safeguard the truth of the Qur'an.5 Once he was on this path, nothing could stop him from pursuing this accusation. In fact it seemed the easiest way to attack the opponents. `If we prove the falsehood of their books, they lose the arguments they take from them.'6 This led him eventually to make the cynical statement `The Christians lost the revealed Gospel except for a few traces which God has left intact as argument against them.
Later writers took up the same reasoning, enlarged it and embellished it. The falsification of the Bible was thus asserted by Salikh Ibn-al-Khusain (died 1200), Ahmad at-Qarafi (died 1285), Sa'id Ibn-Khasan (died 1320), Muhammad Ibn-Abi-Talib (died 1327), Ibn-Taimija (died 1328) and many others. From then on it became a fixed ingredient of Muslim apologetics!!

WHAT DOES ACTUALLY QUR’AN SAYS ABOUT BIBLE?!

1.       Qur’an 3:3 says “It is He(Allah) Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).”
Here Qur’an says clearly that Torah (Old Testament), Injeel (Gospel) are given by Allah. In other

Words, we can say that these are the Words of Allah.

2.       Qur’an 7:157 says “Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) WITH THEM. ”
Here it is clear that Torah and the Injeel are the books with them! Here “them” refers to the “people of the book” who already got the scriptures(Jews and Christians). We know that Mohammed was lived in 6^th century, and in that time Christians used Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible. The present Bibles are just copies of that Bible. It contains 66 Books, including 4 gospel accounts according to Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. And many epistles written by Paul, Peter, and James… Many Muslims often say that the Torah,Injeel which Qur’an says is not the present Bible. This verse clearly says that that Qur’an is referring to present Bible when it says “Torah, Injeel and Zabour”!

3.       In 3:3 “It is He(Allah) Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong)”
Here we can see that In the Gospel there is criterion! In other words, one can know what is right and wrong, by reading the Bible! So thus the Qur’an gives high value to the Bible!

4.       In this verse we can see another characteristic of the Gospel-Guidance to mankind. In Quran 5:44-48 too, we can see that Bible (Torah, Injeel) is Guidance. This verse suggests that Gospel is not only just Guidance, but it is Guidance to the entire mankind!  

5.       Qur’an 6:91 says “No just estimate of Allah do they make when they say: "Nothing doth Allah send down to man (by way of revelation)" Say: "Who then sent down the Book which Moses brought?- a light and guidance to man”
Qur’an says that the Bible is Light and Mercy too! So it is clear that Qur’an gives high value to the  Bible.

QUR’AN SAYS BIBLE CAN’T BE CORRUPTED!

1.       The Quran says that Bible is the word of God (Sura 3:3, 5:44, 6:91…) and Quran also says that
6:34- Rejected were the apostles before thee: with patience and constancy they bore their rejection and their wrongs, until Our aid did reach them: there is none that can alter the words (and decrees) of Allah. Already hast thou received some account of those apostles.
6:115- The word of thy Lord doth find its fulfilment in truth and in justice: None can change His words: for He is the one who heareth and knoweth all.
These verses explicitly say that Allah’s words cannot be changed. The same Quran says that Bible is the Word of God. So, it means that Bible cannot be changed. If Bible is changed, we have to say that Allah’s words are false!

2.       Qur’an 5:47 “Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) those who rebel.”
Here Qur’an says that the Christians will be judged according to Gospel which has revealed to them! If Gospel, has corrupted, then this promise/word of Allah will become wrong! Some may argue that Bible has corrupted, and Qur’an came to confirm it. So the Christians will be judged according to Qur’an which came to confirm the Gospel. But it is not correct, because if Christians are judged by the Qur’an this verse becomes wrong. Because Christians are not judged by the Gospel as this verse suggests. So, in order to fulfill this promise, Gospel should not be corrupted!

3.       5:68-“ Say: "O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord."
2:121-“ Those to whom We have sent the Book study it as it should be studied: They are the ones that believe therein: Those who reject faith therein,- the loss is their own.”
In these verses, Qur’an is asking Christians (and Jews) to believe their own scriptures. In 5:68 we can see that Christians and Jews must obey their own Torah and Gospel. And in sura 2, Qur’an is asking Christians to believe therein and not to reject it! This is an advice to Christians. It is not at all saying about Christians in the first century! Since Allah’s words cannot be changed, this verse is applicable now too!  In order to ask the Christians to follow the Torah and the Gospel, Gospel must be without corruption. So in this verse too Qur’an is saying that Bible is not corrupted, and it cannot be corrupted till this verse changes!!

4.       10:94-“ If thou wert in doubt as to what We have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee: the Truth hath indeed come to thee from thy Lord: so be in no wise of those in doubt.”
In this verse Qur’an says to Muslim that, if anyone has any doubt in the previous scriptures, you should ask to the people who have been reading the book! The book which was revealed is the Bible. If any Muslims have any doubt in that, Qur’an advices he to ask to Christian who was reading the Book before Muslim reads!! This is a very clear evidence for Quranic view of the Holy Bible! If Bible is corrupted, Qur’an won’t say such a thing… It does mean that Qur’an agrees that Bible has not corrupted.

So it is clear that Qur’an says Bible is not corrupted! If Qur’an says in other verses that Bible has corrupted, then we have to say that there is contradiction in Qur’an. But Muslims won’t agree that. In fact, no verses in Qur’an say that Bible has corrupted. Yet some people may say that Qur’an says Bible has corrupted. Even though they are submitting that Qur’an contains contradiction, Let us check the verses often cited by the Muslims to prove that Qur’an says Bible has corrupted!

1.       Qur’an 2:79 says “Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say:"This is from Allah," to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.”

 Muslims often quote this verse to say that Bible has corrupted in the view of Qur’an.If we check immediate context of this verse, we can see “And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture.” Here it is not saying that all peoples are illiterates, but here it is saying “there are among them…”. It means that only some people are wrong. And in the next verse Qur’an is saying about them. At the same time, Qur’an is not criticizing other literate people! It can be seen in 121th ayah of the same verse. There we read "Those to whom We have given the Book recite it with its true recital. They [are the ones who] believe in it. And whoever disbelieves in it - it is they who are the losers." 

This ayah says about "good Christians" who read the scriptures in true way.. If this ayah is true, those scriptures must not get corrupted..
Thus, it means that the books which “literate” Christians follow are true! So this verse is only saying that some people wrote some extra books. But it didn’t make changes in the original scripture!

2.       Quran 4:157-“ That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not”
Muslims quote this verse to say that Christians follow conjecture. But if we read this verse clearly it says “who differs therein is full of doubts”. So those people who follow conjecture are the people who differ therein and those who have doubts. So this verse also says that not all the Christians follow conjecture… But the people in Christians who have doubts follow the conjecture!

3.       Quran 5:13- “But because of their breach of their covenant, We cursed them, and made their hearts grow hard; they change the words from their (right) places and forget a good part of the message that was sent them,.”
Here it is argued that Jews have corrupted the Law within them. Here “change the words from right places” doesn’t mean the corruption on the text of the law. It means the Jews were misinterpreting the Law(Torah) within them. That’s why we see in PIKTHALL translation “And because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts. They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished.” Here it is very clear that the Jews have misinterpreted the Law without looking the context! So this verse is also not saying that Bible has corrupted!

4.       Qur’an 4:46-“Of the Jews there are those who displace words from their (right) places, and say: "We hear and we disobey"; and "Hear what is not Heard"; and "Ra'ina"; with a twist of their tongues and a slander to Faith. If only they had said: "What hear and we obey"; and "Do hear"; and "Do look at us"; it would have been better for them, and more proper; but Allah hath cursed them for their Unbelief; and but few of them will believe.”
These verses say that Jews displace the words of God. It can be both changing the scripture as well as misinterpreting the scripture. Later this verse itself says that this means misinterpreting the scripture (twisting tongues). So this verse just says that Jews are misinterpreting the Law with themselves.

5.       3:78-“ There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (As they read) you would think it is a part of the Book, but it is no part of the Book; and they say, "That is from Allah," but it is not from Allah: It is they who tell a lie against Allah, and (well) they know it!”
Here it is saying that a section of the people distorts the Book with their tongues! Here Qur’an very clearly says it’s opinion about the Bible.. some people among Christians misinterpret the Bible. But Qur’an is not saying about the text of the Bible is corrupted!

Whenever Qur’an says about the distortion in the Bible, it means that Christians and Jews are distorting the scripture with tongues! As I have said above.

WHO IS THE COMFORTER WHICH JESUS PROPHESIED?!

During the speeches of Jesus Christ, He prophesied about a “comforter”. When Bible says it is “Holy Spirit”, Muslims often say that it is Mohammed. Not Holy Spirit. Let us look who is that comforter!

1.          Can it be Mohammed?
Luke 24:49 “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
Acts1:4-“And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.”
In theses verses it is clear that the comforter will come to the people who tarry in the city of Jerusalem! But we all know that Mohammed was born in Saudi. Not in Jerusalem or near to it!! So Mohammed is not the comforter which Jesus prophesied!

2.          Luke 24:49(which I said above) are the words of Jesus Christ to His Disciples. So the comforter will be sent to His disciples! Not to Mohammed, who wasn’t Jesus’ disciple

3.          John 16:7-“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”
This verse also shows that the comforter will be sent to his disciples. So the comforter must come in the age of disciples! It is well clear that Mohammed came 500 years after Jesus. So how can he be the comforter which Jesus prophesied?!!

4.          John 16:13: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. “
John 15:26-“ But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me”
Here we can see that the comforter is “Spirit of Truth”. It means that Comforter is Spirit not a human having body!! We all know that Mohammed is a human who has body. So Mohammed can never be “Spirit of Truth”!

5.          John 14:16-“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;”
In this verse it is clear that comforter will be there with disciples forever! We know that Mohammed passed away in AD 632. So he cannot be with the disciples forever!! So he cannot be the comforter

6.          John 14:17 says “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”
The comforter will be in you!! How can Mohammed be in one person?!! He is a human having body, who cannot sit in one person! So the comforter is Spirit! Not a human like Mohammed!

7.          In above verse, there is one more thing! Jesus is saying to disciples that the comforter will be in the disciples! So the comforter is in many disciples!! That means one person is in many persons!! It shows that comforter is omnipresent being! How can Mohammed be an omnipresent being??!! So, Mohammed is not the comforter which Jesus prophesied!

8.          John 16:14 says “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”
This verse is saying about the comforter that He will glorify Jesus Christ! What did Mohammed do?  He just said the matters about Jesus which is present already in Apocryphal Books! Rather than glorifying Jesus Christ, He tried to curse Him, by denying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ which History accepted!!

Why the comforter is Holy Spirit?

As I have already told, the comforter is the Spirit, not a person! Further Bible clearly says that Holy Spirit is the comforter which Jesus prophesied! In Acts 2:33 we can see “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear”. Here Bible clearly says Holy Spirit is the comforter which Jesus Christ prophesied! If we look all the qualities of the Comforter which I said above, it suits to the Holy Spirit not to Mohammed!
Muslims often say Holy Spirit is not the comforter because

1.       In John 16:14 we can see that word “he” is used to denote Comforter. He is the word used to denote people, and it is not used to denote God or Spirit!
They are saying these arguments because they don’t know usage of Bible. In Genesis 1:5 “And God called the light Day, and the darkness HE called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day” We can see similar terms in Genesis 1:10,1:16,1:27.. In all these verses “He” is used to describe God! So the word “He” does not mean that it must be Human

2.       Then the Muslims say that, Holy Spirit was there before Jesus. So the comforter cannot be Holy Spirit!
In Old Testament, The Spirit “came upon” people as Joshua (Numbers 27:18), David (1 Samuel 16:12-13) and even Saul (1 Samuel 10:10). In the book of Judges, we see the Spirit “coming upon” the various judges whom God raised up to deliver Israel from their oppressors. The Holy Spirit came upon these individuals for specific tasks. The indwelling was a sign of God’s favor upon that individual (in the case of David), and if God’s favor left an individual, the Spirit would depart (e.g., in Saul’s case in 1 Samuel 16:14). So, while in the New Testament the Spirit only indwells believers and that indwelling is permanent, the Spirit came upon certain Old Testament individuals for a specific task, irrespective of their spiritual condition. Once the task was completed, the Spirit presumably departed from that person. In case of New Testament, it is not so. Holy Spirit came to indwell in the disciples of Jesus forever unlike in Old Testament!

So Mohammed is not the Comforter which Jesus prophesied. The comforter is Holy Spirit!

QURAN AND TRINITY

Trinity is one of the most discussed topics within the Christendom, and outside it. Quran, which Muslims believe as the continuation of Bible, also says few points on this Trinity. First of all I would like to discuss what the Trinity is…

Shortly, Trinity means One God is expressed in 3 persons. Or, One God has 3 personalities/characters.
But the essences of the three persons are one. That’s what the Trinity says. Muslims often say that Bible itself does not say anything about the trinity. They may point out that "In Bible there isn’t a single word “Trinity”. Then how can u believe in Trinity?" But in the contrary, Muslims believe in the absolute oneness of God and it is known as “Tahwid”. But In Quran too we can’t a find a single word “Tahwid”! Then some Muslims will say that the root word for “Tahwid” is found in Quran. But it is not our question and if we look further into language, we can understand that the root word of “Truth” and “Lie” is same!!  So the mentioning of root word does not imply anything!! So the next answer of Muslims is that even though the word “Tahwid” is not mentioned in Quran, there are many passages that give idea to “Tahwid”. That is the same thing to Trinity too.  In Bible we can't see the word “Trinity” but, there are many passages that give idea to Trinity

What Bible says about Trinity?
Here I would like to say the concept of Trinity in the Holy Bible. In Genesis 1:1 we can see “In the beginning God created…”. The Hebrew word used for God is “Elohim”. It is a plural word that literally means “Gods”. This name itself shows the diversity/plurality in the God. Some may argue that the plurality is used for the respect. If it was so, we should the same word “Elohim” throughout the Bible. But it is not so. When Jesus prayed to God in the cross, He said “Eli, Eli…” (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?). [Eli is the singular noun that means God]. So the writer of Genesis used the word “Elohim” for a special a purpose. Further, we can see many passages which say about plurality in God (Genesis 1:26, 3:22, 11:7, Isaiah 48). Yet Bible says that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 45:5, 1 Timothy 1:17). And further Bible says  Father is God(By his name itself), Son(who came as man, Jesus Christ)  is God(Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 9:6, John 1:1, Roman 8:5, Colossians 2:9, John 14:9-10,Hebew 1:8, 1 John 1:2, Titus 2:13, Revelation 1:17,18, ..), and Holy Spirit is God(Acts 5:3,4). And in many occasion these personalities can be seen together (Mathew 28:18-20, 2 Corinthians 13:14…) and Malachi 3:1, John 10:30 says Son and Father is one! So the Holy Bible clearly shows that Trinity exists.

 What does Quran says about Trinity?

Quran 4:171-“O people of the scripture, do not transgress the limits of your religion, and do not say about GOD except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was a messenger of GOD, and His word that He had sent to Mary, and a revelation from Him. Therefore, you shall believe in GOD and His messengers. You shall not say, "Trinity." You shall refrain from this for your own good. GOD is only one god.”
Here Quran explicitly denies the Trinity, and the next sentence is a clear evidence for the “knowledge of Quran” about Trinity!! Here Quran says that Do not say Trinity, our God is only one! Early we saw what the Trinity is. Trinity also says that there is only one God. But the Quran doesn’t know the doctrine of Trinity and Quran think Trinity means there are 3 Gods!! That’s what we can see here. And it is clear evidence for the ignorance of the Quran!! If u goes further,
[5:73] Pagans indeed are those who say that GOD is a third of a trinity. There is no god except the one god. Unless they refrain from saying this, those who disbelieve among them will incur a painful retribution
Here too we can see the ignorance of Quran regarding the doctrine of the Trinity. Doctrine of Trinity says One God is expressed in 3 persons. But Quran says God is a third in Trinity!! So Quran think Trinity means 3 Gods, and 3^rd God is the God!! It further proves the ignorance of Quran!!
13:16-Say: "Who is the Lord and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth?" Say: "(It is) Allah." Say: "Do ye then take (for worship) protectors other than Him, such as have no power either for good or for harm to themselves?" Say: "Are the blind equal with those who see? Or the depths of darkness equal with light?" Or do they assign to Allah partners who have created (anything) as He has created, so that the creation seemed to them similar? Say: "(Allah) is the Creator of all things: He is the One, the Supreme and Irresistible."
And in other verses like 4:63, 3:64, 6:22, 6:78, Says that Christians are the people who assign partners to God. It directly shows that, Quran believes Trinity means assigning partners to God. So we have found that Quran says Trinity means 3 Gods, in that one is God! And other 2 are partners!! It is contrary to the doctrine of the Trinity. There aren’t any partners in Trinity… There are 3 personalities, which has same essence. So this “partnership” of Quran also shows further ignorance of the Quran…
5:71-They do blaspheme who say: "(Allah) is Christ the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with Allah,…
5:73 (Y. Ali) They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them.
In the first verse Quran denies the divinity of Jesus, and says that if anyone calls Jesus as the God, they are blaspheming. In very next verse, Quran says if anyone says Allah is one of 3, they are blaspheming. It is clear that Quran think Trinity believers are blasphemers, and they believe Allah, and Jesus Christ are 2 Gods in Trinity!! Who is the 3^rd person??
5:116 (Y. Ali) And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah.?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say).
In this verse we can see the name of Mary with Allah and Jesus. It means Quran believes that 3 Gods in Trinity are Allah, Jesus Christ and Mary!! It is well clear ignorance of Quran.

So, Quran think that Trinity means 3 God! One is Allah! Others are partners! The partners are Jesus and Mary!!!
This is quite contrary to the Holy Trinity. It is well clear that Quran don’t know what the Trinity is!